The Minnesota Weather Thread (Brainerd, Madison: popular, university, water)

[Lodestar]

It's nothing compared to when I was a kid so it's kind of nostalgic for me. I have sympathy for people who have to get to work but even that is easier these days. And much concern for the elders and them keeping warm enough. Check on them, please.

I remember as a teen who insisted on driving in the country in drifts so high you saw nothing but snow looking out the side windows. They were one-way paths so you just hoped no one else was coming from the other direction! No cell phone.

In March of '65 our town electricity was off for five days. No groceries, no medical, no communication and no entertainment. That's when you got out the Monopoly board and card games and remembered how much fun it was to have the family play together.

The doors were blocked by snow, we burned kerosene stoves in a couple of rooms and used hurricane lamps. Slept under great-grandma's heavy wool, patchwork quilts that would plaster a kid flat in bed until morning.

The cats slept on a towel on the open oven door in the kitchen where Mom kept the gas stove going on low.

Waited to see who the first farm folk would be to make it into town and were ready to serve them a cup of coffee and some cake.

After a few days town workers would pile the snow into small mountains and we kids were actually allowed to go out and brutalize each other with games of King on the Hill. Half the town would show up on our corner, the highest spot in town which was a gradual slope, for sledding. You needed a good run first. Dad would cook up a giant kettle of hot chocolate and marshmallows to pass around.

The house was filled with the smell of wet wool snow suits drying on the radiators. I had chillblains on my face.

All I remember was the adventure. But Mom, who was a country school teacher at sixteen, remembered saving the lives of the kids in her classroom alone on the prairie during the Armistice Day blizzard. First she took their lunches and portioned them out. Next she burned the books. Finally, scared to death for the consequences, she burned the desks. No one dared go to the woodpile for fear of going astray and freezing to death. Most of the farm families had ropes that led to the barn and other places they'd have to go.

On the fourth day they were finally saved by a farmer with horses hitched to a manure spreader! His wife had loaded it with quilts and heated bricks. They still had to stay a couple of days at the farmers' home, eating pancakes, until their families could come in search for them.

That story has given me a great deal of respect for Minnesota weather. Even this wimpy stuff.

[jennifat]

Originally Posted by Unsettomati;[url

https://img.apmcdn.org/bd708648786847be67f591c741b0952fb17af087/uncropped/57b003-20230220-rt0220mpxsnow8-webp809.webp

Meh, they always way overblow storm estimates. We'll probably get a good foot of snow, but it'll be falling in two spurts over the course of three days. Nothing we've never seen before in Minnesota.

In general, this has been a mild, fairly uneventful winter. We only had that one week of extreme polar cold back in December, otherwise we've barely dipped below zero at all this entire season which is very strange.

[Shawn Ford]

Just 78 days and the days start getting shorter and the summer is basically over at that point and the state fair is just around the corner from then.

[Lodestar]

Originally Posted by Shawn Ford

Just 78 days and the days start getting shorter and the summer is basically over at that point and the state fair is just around the corner from then.

You must be related to my mother. Every Fourth of July she'd announce, "The summer is half over"

Made me want to cry.

[demtion35]

Originally Posted by Lodestar

You must be related to my mother. Every Fourth of July she'd announce, "The summer is half over"

Made me want to cry.

Not to worry, the cold winter will be over any day now.

[GraniteStater]

Not to worry Minnesotans, a big warming trend likely by the middle of April according to the computer models that I looked at today and yesterday.

[Lodestar]

The last time we had a spring this late the lakes stayed too cold for swimming for me until August.

Probably good for fishermen.

[jennifat]

Sadly, a rapid warm-up is going to mean an extremely dire flood risk this spring. The Twin Cities area may not see catastrophic flooding, but downriver communities need to start sandbagging right now.

[demtion35]

Just announced, Duluth area, for being 4th snowiest season on record.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by demtion35

Just announced, Duluth area, for being 4th snowiest season on record.

Most of the snowier seasons have all been in the last 20-30 years. Warmer overall climate means the ability for the atmosphere to hold more moisture- meaning more snowfall in specific areas.